I’ve been in Berlin for a year now. It’s been a great adventure involving a good deal of self-exploration, and I’ve already covered some aspects of it on the blog. And, quite ironically, that’s the part I find most exciting – the fact that I’ve slowly started to carve out my path as a writer. And I can’t complain about the lack of inspiration. As a matter of fact, Berlin is home to quite a lot of amazing, independent women who have a clear vision of themselves and work hard every day to make it their reality. Following the tradition of previous years we want to recapture the past year by honoring the amazing women that have done great things in these past twelve months.

Esther Perbandt

The presence of fashion designer Esther Perbandt on iHeartBerlin can be traced back into the year 2010 when she joined the Designer Scouts fashion show co-organized by iHeartBerlin. Since then we’ve been checking back in with her over the years on various occasions such as her grand 10th anniversary spectacle a few years ago at Volksbühne. In January 2016 she graced another theater stage with her fashion designs in the form of a performance fashion show at Radialsysteme V. This woman never seems to run out of ideas on how to break conventions of the fashion world. We’re excited for her next show in January 2017 which is again going to be a bigger happening at Volksbühne.

photo: Oliver Rath

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Yasha Young

Featured on the blog as a part of this interview series, Yasha Young is the director of a Berlin-based contemporary art platform Urban Nation, that we owe a big part of the new street art murals in Berlin to. The initiative, that has been active since 2013, is all about building and maintaining a non profit platform for education, networking, development, research and archive for urban or new contemporary art.

Yasha Young

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Pansy

Another colorful character we’ve introduced you to in our interview series this year was Pansy. The drag queen, originally coming from the US, is the host of many fantastic nightlife events in Berlin and co-founder of YO! SISSY, Berlin’s very own fabulous queer music festival that’s been happening for 2 years now.

photo: Manuel Moncayo

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Barbara.

The anonymous street art poet of the urban space leaves thought-provoking messages in the city jungle. She encourages people to love and tolerance and disagrees with right-wing parties’ policy, racism and nationalism. Unfortunately for the English speaking part of our crowd, her witty notes are mostly in German. But head over to her fanpage on FB anyway; translating her pictures is a great motivation to learn!

Barbara.

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Andrea Wan

The illustrator and visual artist born in Hong Kong has a very characteristic style, being able to depict grotesque ideas in a very delicate manner. She’s been previously featured on our blog with her solo show here in Berlin, but we’ve seen her work popping up at multiple other exhibitions – much to our delight. Follow her on Instagram to see her newest work.

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Sarah P.

One of our friends at Blogfabrik, Sarah is a creative mind who’s recently shared her reflections on the Winter time in Berlin here on the blog. First and foremost though, she’s a very talented musician and will release her new album “Who am I” in May 2017 and her new single on January 6. Also check out her amazing EP “Free”.

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Steffimarla

This Instagrammer captures the spirit of Berlin like few others and she is one of our absolute favorite at the moment. We’ve featured Steffimarla‘s stunning photos a lot of times on our Instagram picks on Facebook, but her work has also brought life to some of our editorial pieces such as the one about Letting Go of Berlin.

In the world where so many people choose to go with one of the highly popularized, hip careers, it’s always inspiring to see a success story in an area that’s been associated more with tradition than new trends. Kristiane Kegelmann makes the best of both, being a well-known food designer and basically reinventing our conventional ideas about the way we eat.

photo: Caroline Prange

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Britta Thie

Britta Thie has a very multi-faceted profile, working as a visual artist, actress, and model. She’s created, written and directed the web series Transatlantics produced by Schirn Kunsthalle and ZDF in collaboration with ARTE Creative. She also played the main character BiBi in the show. Check out her website to see what’s been up to.

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Liz_B

Not only to us, but also to plenty of other photographers Instagrammer Liz_B has become a sort of contemporary muse. Liz describes herself as a “city romantic” and that’s just what her pictures are like – they encapsulate the edgy Berlin magic. The rooftops of the city are her favorite places for her, to be up there gives her a rush like no other and spikes her creativity to make the most beautiful photos.